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November 27, 2012

Update - Another successful Indian AAD Interceptor Missile Test

India on Friday [November 23, 2012] successfully tested its indigenously developed anti-ballistic missile, known as the Advanced Air Defence (AAD), off the coast of Odisha (also called "Orissa") and said it is readying to deploy the system in the National Capital Region for protection against hostile missiles.

Appears to be an infrared (heat sensitive) film of the same AAD Launch.

"Any discussion on the ballistic missile defence raises technical questions about
the possible success rate of a deployed system. While the odds of an interceptor
missile taking out an incoming ballistic missile with multiple warheads are low,
the odds of such an interceptor system taking out multiple incoming ballistic
missiles (each with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) are
even lower. The ‘successful’ tests that were conducted by the DRDO were in fact
against the slow moving Prithvi missiles. The DRDO has not even tested them
against its own Agni missiles. How such a BMD system would fare against missiles
like the Dongfeng-41 with multiple sub-warheads with separate trajectories
remains an unanswered question. The Indian BMD system does not even provide an
answer to Indian vulnerability to the ‘stealth’ cruise missiles like the
Hatf-VII that are possessed by Pakistan."----------------------------------------------Brahmand November 23, 2012 reports http://brahmand.com/news/India-successfully-tests-ballistic-missile-shield/10416/1/10.html

"India successfully tests ballistic missile shield"

BALASORE, ODISHA (PTI): India Friday [November 23, 2012] successfully tested its indigenously developed ballistic missile shield off the coast of Odisha and said it is readying to deploy the system in the National Capital Region for protection against hostile missiles.

As part of the exercise, it test-fired a supersonic [medium altitude Advanced Air Defence (AAD) "Ashwin" missile - see BACKGROUND below] interceptor missile which destroyed a 'hostile' ballistic missile off the Odisha coast.

India is working towards development of a multi-layer Ballistic Missile Defence system.

"We are ready to deploy the system in the NCR region by 2014," DRDO's scientist and Director of the Missile Defence Programme Avinash Chander said.

The 'hostile' ballistic missile, a modified surface-to-surface 'Prithvi', mimicking an incoming enemy weapon, first lifted off from a mobile launcher at around 12.52 hours from the launch complex-3 of integrated test range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-Sea, about 15 kms from here.

Within about four minutes, the interceptor, Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile positioned at Wheeler Island, about 70 km from Chandipur, after getting signals from tracking radars, roared through its trajectory to destroy the incoming missile mid-air in an "endo-atmospheric" altitude, defence sources said.

Gupta said a simulated test was also done on Friday to check the system and it was also successful. In Friday's test, the hostile missile was simulated to be a ballistic missile fired from the range of 1,500 kms, he said.

The interceptor missile is a 7.5-metre-long single-stage solid rocket propelled guided missile equipped with a navigation system, a hi-tech computer and an electro- mechanical activator, the sources said.

The interceptor missile had its own mobile launcher, secure data link for interception, independent tracking and homing capabilities, besides sophisticated radars, they added.

BACKGROUND

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ballistic_Missile_Defence_Programme "The Indian Ballistic Missile Defence Programme is an initiative to develop and deploy a multi-layered ballistic missile defense system to protect India from ballistic missile attacks.
Introduced in light of the ballistic missile threat from Pakistan, it is a double-tiered system consisting of two interceptor missiles, namely the Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) missile for high altitude interception, and the Advanced Air Defence (AAD) Missile for lower altitude interception. The two-tiered shield should be able to intercept any incoming missile launched 5,000 kilometers away.
PAD was tested in November 2006, followed by AAD in December 2007. With the test of the PAD missile, India became the fourth country to have successfully developed an Anti-ballistic missile system, after United States, Russia and Israel. On March 6, 2009, India again successfully tested its missile defense shield, during which an incoming "enemy" missile was intercepted at an altitude of 75 km.

Wiki reports: "Advanced Air Defence (AAD) is an anti-ballistic missile designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in the endo-atmosphere at an altitude of 30 km (19 mi). AAD is single stage, solid fuelled missile. Guidance is similar to that of PAD: it has an inertial navigation system, midcourse updates from ground based radar and active radar homing in the terminal phase. It is 7.5 m (25 ft) tall, weighs around 1.2 t (1.2 long tons; 1.3 short tons) and a diameter of less than 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in).
On 6 December 2007, AAD successfully intercepted a modified Prithvi-II missile acting as an incoming ballistic missile enemy target. The endo-atmospheric interception was carried out at an altitude of 15 km (9.3 mi). The interceptor and all the elements performed in a copy book fashion validating the endo-atmospheric layer of the defense system. The launch was also shown through a video link at a control room of DRDO at Bhawan, Delhi.

The sequence of events of the test was as follows. At 11 a.m. the Prithvi missile lifted off from Launch Complex III at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur Orissa. Radars at Konark, Paradip detected the missile and were continuously tracking it. The target information was sent to MCC for further processing. MCC classified the target, calcuated the trajectory of the missile and assigned the target to a AAD battery located on Wheeler Island, 70 km (43 mi) across the sea from Chandipur.The AAD was launched when the Prithvi reached an apogee of 110 km (68 mi). The AAD with the help of midcourse updates and its terminal seeker manoeuvres itself towards the target. AAD makes a direct hit at an altitude of 15 km (9.3 mi) and at a speed of Mach 4.

Due to two successful interceptor missile tests carried out by India, the scientists have said that the AAD missile could be modified into a new extended range (up to 150 km (93 mi)) surface-to-air missile that could be possibly named as ‘Ashvin’.

On 15 March 2010, AAD interceptor missile test from the Orissa coast on Monday was aborted, as the target missile deviated from its path and plunged into the sea. The AAD missile was to intercept the target at an altitude of 15 to 20 km over the sea. The target, a Prithvi missile, fired at 10:02 am from a mobile launcher from the Integrated Test Range Complex-3 at Chandipur-on-Sea, 15 km from here, deviated from its trajectory after traveling about 11 km and fell into the sea.
On 26 July 2010, AAD was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler Island off the Orissa's east coast.
On 6 March 2011, India launched its indigenously developed interceptor missile from the Orissa coast.India successfully test-fired its interceptor missile which destroyed a 'hostile' target ballistic missile, a modified Prithvi, at an altitude of 16 km over the Bay of Bengal. the interceptor, Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile positioned at Wheeler Island, about 70 km across sea from Chandipur, received signals from tracking radars installed along the coastline and travelled through the sky at a speed of 4.5 Mach to destroy it. As the trial was aimed at achieving the desired result with precision, the interceptor missile had its own mobile launcher, secure data link for interception, independent tracking and homing capabilities and sophisticated radars. "It was a fantastic launch. The trial, conducted from two launch sites of ITR off Orissa coast for developing a full fledged multi-layer Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system, was fully successful," he said.
On 10 February 2012, AAD was again successfully test-fired from from Wheeler Island off the state coast near Dhamra in Bhadrak district, about 170 km from Bhubaneswar.
On 23 November 2012, India again successfully testfired its home-made supersonic Advanced Air Defense (AAD) interceptor missile from a defense base off the coast of the eastern state of Odisha. "The testfiring was part of India's efforts to create a missile defense shield against incoming enemy missiles. The AAD interceptor missile, which was fired from the Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast, successfully destroyed mid-air an incoming ballistic missile launched from the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur, about 70 kms from the Wheeler Island."

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Director, Submarine Matters International. I analyse international trends, technical and political - mainly on submarines, sometimes on surface ships, aircraft, missiles and their nuclear warheads. This website started in 2007. I have a Masters Degree (International Relations (Strategic Studies)) High Distinction average. I'm happy to do research projects commissioned by consultancies, etc. The best way to navigate this site is to put a keyword in the search box top left corner.